An inkjet printing system may include a printhead, an ink supply that supplies liquid ink to the printhead, and an electronic controller that controls the printhead. The printhead ejects drops of ink through a plurality of nozzles or orifices toward a print medium, such as a sheet of paper, to print onto the print medium. Typically, the orifices are arranged in one or more columns or arrays such that properly sequenced ejection of ink from the orifices causes characters or other images to be printed upon the print medium as the printhead and the print medium are moved relative to each other.
One type of printhead includes a piezoelectrically actuated printhead. The piezoelectrically actuated printhead includes a substrate defining a plurality of fluid chambers, a flexible membrane supported by the substrate and over the fluid chambers, and a plurality of actuators arranged on the flexible membrane. Each actuator includes a piezoelectric material that deforms when an electrical voltage is applied to the actuator via a pair of electrodes. When the piezoelectric material deforms, a portion of the flexible membrane deflects thereby causing ejection of fluid from a fluid chamber through an orifice or nozzle. Typically, one of the electrodes for each actuator is coupled to a control signal line and the other one of the electrodes for each actuator is coupled to a common reference or ground signal line.